Recorded shows and scheduled recordings disappear!

[multi_greg]

I'm suddenly having an issue with WMC: all my TV recordings or scheduled recordings suddenly disappeared from the list within WMC. More surprising is that all the recordings are actually still present in my (V:) 1TB drive. Same issue with scheduled recordings: they are all gone! What's even more puzzling is that WMC still records shows regardless: The recording history page shows new TV shows being recorded everyday and stored in V:.

When I try to schedule a recording I get this error message: "The recording could not be scheduled for an unknown reason. Restart Media Center and try to schedule your recording again."
When I try to play a recording by clicking directly on the actual dvr.ms file, I get this error message: "Application Failure - A critical Media Center process has failed. Please restart the computer and try again. If the problem persists, contact you hardware manufacturer for assistance."

When I check the assigned drive for recordings, I discovered that it is set to (C:) which is not suited to record shows since it is only a 20GB drive dedicated to the OS. When I try to reassign it to (V:) - my 1TB drive - it doesn't want to save and keep my preference and automatically reverts back to (C:).

I recently installed a program to convert vob to mp4 but uninstalled. I think my issues with WMC started at that point. I did a system restore to a state prior to this install but that didn't help.

I run MCE on windows XP Pro since 2008 and any pointer on how to solve this issue would be great.
Thanks.

[multi_greg]

Here's what I've tried so far:
• Ran Event Viewer and didn't noticed related issues.
• Edited the registry key to assign correct (V:) drive path in : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Recording. No effects on WMC's ability to display and keep drive preference and allocated size to (V:) (Unexpectedly, it displays and reverts back to (C:) no matter what).
• Stopped all Windows Media Center Services and then deleted "Recording.xml" and "Recording.xml.bak" files. Restarted services and opened WMC to try scheduling something: No luck with error message "The recording could not be scheduled for an unknown reason. Restart Media Center and try to schedule your recording again.".

I'm in a dead-end with this. Maybe my unsuccessful attempts above might inspire someone to propose something else?
Thanks.

[CyberSimian]

I'm in a dead-end with this.

You seem to have multiple problems, but I guess that it is possible that a single problem is causing multiple symptoms.

Is formatting your C: drive and re-installing the operating system too big a step to take? Yes, I am being serious.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[CyberSimian]

Here's what I've tried so far:
• Stopped all Windows Media Center Services and then deleted "Recording.xml" and "Recording.xml.bak" files. Restarted services and opened WMC to try scheduling something: No luck with error message "The recording could not be scheduled for an unknown reason. Restart Media Center and try to schedule your recording again.".

I do this from time to time, but after deleting the two "Recordings.xml" files, I always reboot immediately. In my experience with Vista, restarting the Media Center services does not quite activate them correctly. For example, on Vista, after stopping and restarting the MC services, the red-dot tray applet in the system tray does not work any more -- I have to reboot to get it to work correctly again. So there is something getting out of sync when I stop and start the MC services. That is why I always reboot after stopping the MC services to make changes.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK

[miles267]

I've encountered a similar issue where RECORDED TV show entries suddenly disappear from the list of available RECORDED TV shows that can be watched. However the corresponding media file still resides in the appropriate \recorded tv directory on the hard drive. Were you able to determine the cause of this issue?

[poster72]

"I've encountered a similar issue where RECORDED TV show entries suddenly disappear from the list of available RECORDED TV shows that can be watched. However the corresponding media file still resides in the appropriate \recorded tv directory on the hard drive. Were you able to determine the cause of this issue?"

is there a reason this happens? If I "stop recording" a newly recorded show, the menu i am left with does not have the "delete" option available. Hitting exit should take you to that item in the DVR recordings, but instead it jumps to the top of the list and that item is not there. I have to exit WMC and restart in order to see that program and delete it. Odd, but this just started happening when i upgraded the drive with "recorded TV" dvr and live tv buffer.